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Surviving cone-shaped Steiger Vortex rainmaking guns displayed beside Graham Andrews Parklands in Charleville, remnants of a remarkable 1902 attempt to make rain during drought.
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Steiger Vortex Rainmaking Guns
This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
Site-level location · 26.4128° S, 146.2449° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
In September 1902, in the worst year of the Federation Drought, the government meteorologist Clement Wragge set up six cone-shaped iron cannons on the plains outside Charleville and tried to shoot rain out of the sky.
The machines were Steiger Vortex guns, an Austrian design that was being taken seriously in several countries at the time. The theory was that firing a powerful vortex of air upward would disturb the atmosphere enough to trigger condensation. Wragge had six of them made to his order by Harvey and Son at the Globe Ironworks in Brisbane – locally built machines for a locally desperate problem – each standing about five metres high.
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PRACTICAL
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WHAT TO EXPECT
The Steiger Vortex Rainmaking Guns are surviving cone-shaped rainmaking machines displayed in the Graham Andrews Parklands precinct. They are genuine historic machines rather than enlarged replicas, which is why they sit in the Related category rather than among the built-for-display Big Things.
ACCESS
Navigate to the public Charleville Rest Area beside Graham Andrews Parklands on Sturt Street. Current tourism describes the park as a normal visitor stop with ample caravan/camper parking; walk into the park precinct to view the guns rather than stopping beside the display itself.
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